1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates generally to diapers for the containment of body waste and particularly on infants.
2. Background:
Disposable diapers have been used rather widely over the last thirty to forty years and, in fact, constitute a major industry. Typically, the disposable diapers comprise a liquid impermeable plastic backing or outer sheet, an intermediate layer which may be a wood pulp absorbent bat, and a moisture permeable inner or facing sheet which would be against the infant. The components are generally secured together by lines of adhesive with the backing and facing sheets usually directly adhesively interconnected around peripheral portions of the diaper. Some disposable diapers include elastic bands for providing the shaping and/or gathering effect for the diaper in the crotch region and facilitating the establishment of a fluid resistant seal around the infants legs.
A great deal has been accomplished in the field of the disposable waste collecting garments used on children. Their increased ability to remove liquids away from the body and increase capacity to store liquids has helped them to almost completely replace the older cloth garments. But, most of the improvements in such garments have been directed in the ability to handle liquid waste. In actual practice, however, the use to which such garments are subjected is that they are called upon not only to retain liquid but on a daily basis they are called upon to retain both solids and semi-solids excreted from the digestive track. For the most part the way the garments have been improved to deal with such waste has been by improving the ability of the leg and waste openings to minimize leakage to outer garments. This is necessary because such garments are ill prepared to deal with such waste. As every mother knows the solution that merely stops the leakage is actually no solution at all. What happens many times when the child does not have a very firm bowel movement, the excretement is crushed and spread between the child's body and the inner permanent layer of the diaper. Such spreading of waste on a child's body contributes to constant filth and its associated rashes, skin irritations and untold discomfort caused by such unsanitary conditions.
It is therefore seen that there is a definite and urgent need for a diaper which can contain the solid waste material and keep it from being spread over a substantial portion of the area covered by the diaper. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved disposable diaper which will prevent the spreading and smearing of the child's solid waste.